So What's the Deal?
by Europe28
Summary: Sarah corners Jake by the water fountain at work to find out once and for all what sort of relationship he has with Amir. Jake/Amir
1. Chapter 1

"So what is the deal between you and Amir?"

Sarah and Jake had bumped into each other at the water fountain. It was one of those rare occasions where Amir hadn't followed him with no explanation.

"What?" Jake blinked at Sarah with confusion, then decided that he needed to be more specific, "what do you mean what's the deal? I'd have thought it was pretty obvious."

"Not really" Sarah shrugged, "you see one minuet you're yelling at him and shooting him down and the next you're highfiving each other. What does that mean, are you guys friends?"

Jake raised his eyebrows, "of course we're not friends,"

"Oh..." Sarah nodded, then asked as if on a passing thought "boyfriends?"

Jake spluttered and stared at her mouth open. Had he heard right?

No, he couldn't have done.

"You heard me" Sarah repeated, clearly able to read his face like a book, "are you two boyfriends, because you know if you are then the world has come on a lot and..."

"No!" Jake interrupted her before she could continue, "No, we're not! God that is disgusting! Me and Amir? Where would you even get an idea like that! Come on, it's stupid!"

Sarah put her hands up in defence and walked away, leaving Jake by the fountain with a shocked and defensive look plastered across his face.

Spotting Pat sitting at his desk with a curious look she hurried over to him.

"Did you ask him?" He asked in a quick lowered tone, looking around nervously.

"He said they weren't" Sarah replied, though she didn't sound too certain, "though now I think about it... maybe they just don't know that's what they want," a grin was beginning to spread across her face.

Meanwhile over at Jake and Amir's corner of the office, Jake had just slipped back into his chair.

He eyed Amir for a moment, then laughed out loud, a laugh that he hoped didn't sound fake. "You know Sarah just asked me the weirdest thing back at the fountain?"

"What?" Amir asked excitedly, always eager to get into a conversation with Jake about anything.

"Well..." Jake's voice caught in his throat, he laughed awkwardly, "well...she thought, for some ridiculous reason, that we... that is to say you and me... were..."

Amir waited eagerly, hanging on Jake's every word, ready to retort no doubt with some unwitty remark that didn't make sense.

"Nothing, you know it's nothing," he flicked his eyes back to his screen, anxious for the world to move on and for him to forget that conversation.

"It didn't sound like nothing" Amir pressed, still grinning, "oh my God did she ask where he calculator was!?"

Against his better judgement Jake looked back up, "what? No, why?"

"No reason" Amir murmured, pushing his desk draw shut in a discreetly obvious way. "Then what was it?" He was back on the attack.

Maybe he should just tell him, the odds were Amir wouldn't understand anyway.

"She asked me if we were going out" he laughed again, in an attempt to lighten it, though in truth he felt sick to his stomach, and the odd part was that it wasn't even the right sort of sickness he should feel about an idea like this.

"But we do go out" Amir corrected him, "we're like best buds, that's what best buds do, am I right?" He grinned widely, "speaking of which are we going somewhere tonight?"

This was it, a chance to change conversation, why didn't he take it?

"No, she meant like...boyfriends..."

"...What?" Confusion on Amir's end.

As he felt the awkwardness in his chest growing, Jake began to feel more irritable. This was all Sarah's fault for asking! No, it was Amir's fault, it was his fault! Jake wasn't sure how, but he was sure it was.

"Look shut-up!" Jake snapped, fixing Amir with a fierce look, "I'm not in the mood right now so just don't talk to me okay!"

The silence lasted only long enough for Amir to process what had been said to him.

"Why are you mad?" He sounded confused, and his eyes were glazed like a kicked puppy's behind his glasses.

There were two types of confusion in Amir, one made Jake want to punch him and the other always made him feel excessively guilty.

"I'm mad because you're stupid!" Jake growled, feeling worse than ever, "If I tell you to shut-up just shut it okay!"

But it was never okay with Amir.

Tears began to well up behind his eyes, then his glasses started to steam, he was crying, oh God he'd made him cry.

Jake struggled with himself, on one hand he knew he should go over and tell Amir that he was sorry and to forget about the argument, but on the other he was still angry and Amir was the perfect person to vent his inner frustration onto.

"Stop crying, you're such a baby!" Jake snapped, rolling his eyes and leaning back on his chair, "I'm just asking you to be quiet."

Amir sniffed, "I'm not crying" he sobbed, his voice reduced to that high pitched whine.

"Yes man, you are" Jake insisted, wondering why he'd even decided this was worth arguing about. It was his one major fault, and the only one he would admit to, he pretty much encouraged Amir's behaviour by responding, if he treated Amir as coldly as everyone else then Amir would probably have left him alone by now, but as it was, he needed Amir's attention almost as much as Amir needed his.

"I'm not!" Amir continued to press, his voice growing more hysterical by the moment.

Unable to deal with this any more, Jake rose to his feet, turned and stormed out of the office.

He passed Sarah on his way out, he didn't say a word to her, but gave her a fierce glare as he slammed the door behind him.

Sarah looked between the door where Jake had vanished and Amir's desk, where the other man's sobbing had steadied to distressed choking hiccups now the target was gone.

Was this somehow her fault? That would explain the glare that Jake had given her, because usually he was always friendly to her even when Amir had pushed him right to the edge.

She would have left it there and gone back to her desk if her heart hadn't of gotten the better of her.

The whole office was used to Amir's whining and howling, but the crying that was going on at the other side of the office at the moment was unlike any she'd ever seen; it was utterly depressing and stung every part of her body to listen.

She perched quietly on the edge of Amir's desk.

"Amir what's wrong?"

"Go away!" That was the normal reply that Amir gave anyone, but Jake, in the office.

The short coarse reply was followed by a dull silence, completely out of character with Amir's personality.

It suddenly hit her that Jake had never before walked away while Amir was in such a state and he was the only one who was ever able to calm him down, and his absence was sending Amir's fit into overdrive.

"Look is this about what I said to Jake?"

Amir's face turned to look at her and the expression on his face actually made her back off a few paces.

"Why did you say that to him, it upset him!" Amir snapped miserably, "now he won't talk to me..."

"He's just feeling a little awkward at the moment," Sarah tried a reassuring smile, "I'm sure he'll be fine tomorrow when he's had time to cool off..."

"Why did it bother him so much?" Amir muttered to himself, cutting her off.

This response caught her slightly off guard, "so, your actually bothered that he was so repulsed by the idea?"

Amir winced, and she instantly regretted her phrasing.

"I'll tell you what Amir, I'll talk to him" Sarah promised, "it's the least I can do for starting this mess, so cheer up okay."

Amir sniffed and nodded, "you promise?"

"I promise."

Sarah turned back to her desk, she'd speak to Jake after work, it was going to be an interesting conversation.


	2. Chapter 2

A knock and the door roused Jake from his thoughts.

After his argument with Amir he'd come straight home and just sat for hours on the sofa, his phone on the coffee table in front of him, with some part of him just hoping that it would ring and it would be Amir chatting about something stupid again – the whole daft conversation forgotten.

But there was no call.

So when he heard the sharp tapping at the door he was on his feet immediately, pulling open the door without even checking through the eyeglass who it was.

He tried not to physically show how disappointed he was when he saw Sarah waiting for him on the other side.

"Oh... Hey Sarah." He stood in the doorway, unsure as to whether he should invite her in or not.

But Sarah answered that one for him by barging past his arm and looking at him with a clear cool look, "Jake we need to talk,"

"What about?" Jake asked, with a light laugh, although he knew perfectly well what this was about. He'd been a fool to think that Sarah would drop their conversation, especially after his display at the office this afternoon.

Sarah bit her lip and sighed, sitting down on the sofa where he'd been just a moment ago. "It's about Amir..." she began, "he was really upset after you left Jake, you were kind of mean to him..."

Jake threw up his arms in frustration, "Sarah we're always like that!" He pointed out, "he annoys me, I shout at him, he cries..."

"...then you cheer him up again. I've never seen you leave him in tears before... Look did my question really bother you so much that you'd abandon your friend?"

"I told you he's not my friend" Jake muttered, although neither he or Sarah bothered to believe that this time.

Sarah crossed her arms and indicated that Jake should sit on the chair opposite.

Feeling a little disgruntled about being bossed around in his own home, Jake sat down, crossing his arms in imitation; although he didn't mean for the gesture to be funny.

"Jake please be honest with me for a few minuets," Sarah looked him right in the eye, "do you or do you not care about Amir in any way?"

She watched Jake shuffle uncomfortably on his seat for a few seconds before squeezing out a very quiet "of course I care about him..."

Feeling triumphant at her first achievement, Sarah tried not to show it. She knew for someone as insecure as Jake that it would only cause him to spring up his defences, then she'd get nothing out of him and the problem would go on.

"Why do you care about him?" She continued, keeping her voice soft and patient.

Jake dropped his gaze, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his index finger; "I suppose he's my friend" he admitted,

"Why?" Sarah pressed.

That question did surprise Jake, and Sarah was pretty confident in her belief that Jake didn't know the answer to that question; so she gave him some time to think.

A long minuet passed before Jake spoke again, and when he did it was in pauses and hesitations. "He... He always puts up with me, even when the rest of you... get annoyed..." his expression winced as he acknowledged the fact that he could be almost as irritating as Amir from time-to-time. "He's kind of funny... I guess, and well... work would be pretty boring without him..."

Sarah knew that he'd never admit the next one that she could see on his tongue, and that was that Jake loved the attention Amir gave him; whatever Jake did he could always rely on Amir to give him the reaction he was looking for, even for the most trivial of things.

"Has he ever kissed you?" Sarah asked, going straight for the throat of the problem.

The question caught Jake off guard, his face flushing with colour, refusing to meet Sarah's gaze. "He did kiss me on the cheek once, after he'd tracked me down on a shopping trip," this admission looked painful for Jake to admit, although Sarah did take note that Jake's hand momentarily brushed over his cheek as he spoke.

"What if..." Sarah took a deep breath, "what if... and I'm not saying that he does... but what if Amir was interested in you?"

Jake stared at her with open eyes, looking panicked at being put on the spot like this. She saw a nerve tick, then a glazed look come over Jake's face for a moment and she groaned inwardly; she'd awoken Jake's insecurity.

Jake laughed, throwing his arms up, "I think it's pretty obvious he does, I mean chicks dig me, and Amir is obviously obsessed with me, so I suppose I'd carry on like normal."

Sarah decided to try once more, "so you wouldn't act on it?"

"Act on it?" Jake was hysterical, "Act on it? Act on it?" He'd started repeating the question, which meant that he didn't have an answer.

"Yes, act on it" Sarah sighed, "Would you be angry, flattered, or..."

"Or?" Jake's eyes fixed on her, his expressions and emotions displaying their confusion on his face.

"Or, would you..." She tried to imply what she meant with her gestures, then realised that she'd have to spell it out for him, "would you return his feelings?"

Jake didn't have an answer. He didn't even know what the right answer was, and that was causing all his insecurities to bubble up inside of him, threatening to burst out of him in a wild angry rant, like the ones he often gave Amir when his fellow employee had gotten him to this state, which even Amir did very rarely.

Sarah took note of his inner boiling and got up to leave, hurrying out of the door with the farewell of "I'll see you at work tomorrow."

That night, Jake couldn't stop the conversations of the day running around in his head; and every time he saw Amir's face he felt a tight clench in his chest. He'd upset him over nothing, only his stupid insecurities.

Remembering Sarah's hypothetical example he groaned, what if Amir really did like him? What did he do then?

He mentally kicked himself, of course he shouldn't act on it, he should just let life carry on like normal... But then again... if Amir did like him something inside was telling him not to do that; it just wasn't telling him what to do instead.

What would it be like to be in a relationship with the stupidest man in the office?

Jake shook his head and smiled, of course it wouldn't work; nobody would want to spend that much time with someone as annoying as Amir.

Although on the other hand, Jake and Amir spent almost all their time together anyway, the only thing added into the equation would be kissing and sex...

This time the moan that was uttered from Jake's lips was entirely involuntary, as he felt his boxers tighten.

He could imagine himself now, kissing Amir... fucking him... Oh God!

Jake buried his head in his pillow, trying to get rid of his thoughts and ignore he very pressing feeling in his underwear.

Would Amir be a noisy lover? Yes of course he would. Jake moaned again, muffling the sound with his pillows, his hand darting down to touch the growing erection, giving into his mind as it played scenario after scenario in his head.


	3. Chapter 3

Jake turned his head into his pillow and sighed. He'd called in sick today and was spending the day in bed trying to get over those weird feelings that Sarah had caused to overflow inside him when she left yesterday.

Although he knew it was daft, Jake was pretty convinced that if Amir arrived right now at the door with that stupid grin on his face then he wouldn't be able to hold back.

Jake banged his head against his pillow, breathing in and out deeply, trying to imagine normal things like Sarah in a bikini... or nothing at all for that matter, but his thoughts kept straying back to that messy haired man with a dumb expression and precariously balanced glasses on the tip of his nose.

So when the first knock on the door came Jake assumed he was imagining things – simply projecting what he wanted so that his senses were convinced that it was actually happening.

On the second knock, he did lift his head, but then put it back down again.

But, when a key clicked in the door he sat bolt upright in bed, ready for burglars or...

Amir poked his head around the door frame with a nervous smile, "hey Jakey, how you doing?"

Despite himself Jake smiled, sensing Amir's nervousness – it made him feel less threatened, like he wasn't the only one in the room that had something to feel worried about.

Amir returned the smile shyly and sat down on the edge of Jake's bed, handing him a few papers.

"Sarah told me to bring these over to you" he explained, twiddling his thumbs and avoiding eye contact with Jake.

Sarah! Of course it was Sarah, Jake just didn't know what to do with that woman.

Jake took the paper from Amir and dropped it on his bedside table, knowing that if Sarah had sent it then it probably wasn't anything important anyway.

There was an awkward silence between the two of them, then Jake let out a long sigh, "look, I'm sorry about what happened the other day, I shouldn't have gone so far when you were upset..." He scratched the back of his head nervously, then bit his tongue and looked anywhere in the room at Amir, "what Sarah said just you know... made me a bit weird..."

He could now feel Amir's eyes on him, an unreadable expression plastered there – Jake could sense it, even if he wasn't looking; he knew all of Amir's expressions so well.

"Did it really bother you that much?" A very un-Amirish voice asked, and when Jake turned back to be sure he'd heard right, he found that Amir's own gaze was refusing to meet his. The other man's cheeks were flushed lightly and he'd taken off his glasses to clean despite the fact they didn't look dirty.

"I-I thought it might bother you..." Jake avoided directly answering the question, because he wasn't completely sure of the answer himself.

Finally their eyes made contact.

Jake really hoped that he wasn't blushing as much as Amir was.

Amir laughed gently, giving him a small lopsided grin, showing a lack of surety in every feature that Jake was now presented with.

Jake couldn't work out if this was because he may have said too much, or that Amir, being the idiot he was, didn't understand quite what Jake was trying to say... or at least signal, Jake never said anything he meant.

But Amir didn't get it, because he stood up, breaking their eye contact and muttered something about getting back to work.

As Amir was working these words out of his mouth, Jake's brain was thinking fast and hard – Amir was stupid, Jake wanted to signal something to him, but what did he have to do to make it obvious enough for Amir?

Just as his co-worker turned to go, Jake grabbed his hand and pulled him back onto the bed, cupping the side of Amir's face in his hand and kissing him softly before either of them could change their mind.

For a moment there was hesitation on Amir's side, but then he opened his mouth and allowed Jake passage, kissing back eagerly.

Jake was the first to break the kiss, he moved Amir back by his shoulders and looked him in the eye and asked "do you know what this means?" in a serious and level tone.

Amir blinked, as if suddenly worried this was all a trick – to reassure him, Jake removed one hand from Amir's shoulder and used it to tip his chin up so that they were looking direction at each other again.

Jake would never be able to say it, but he knew Amir would.

"T-That you like-like me?" Amir mumbled, Jake could feel Amir's racing and fearful pulse against his neck, frightened of being rejected and laughed at – it calmed when Jake nodded slowly back and went back in to kiss Amir gently.

"And do you 'like-like' me?" Jake continued, still littering Amir's mouth, cheek, neck, with small butterfly kisses.

Amir let out a small whimpering sound and nodded, turning up his head so that their lips met again.

~/~

"So?" Sarah grinned, leaning against the wall by the coffee machine with a knowing look on her face, "how did it go?"

Jake scowled, "I don't know what you mean,"

Sarah's grin just widened, "of course you don't Jakey."

_**Chapter is short, but story is finished. I hope everybody enjoyed it~**_


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